00:00 Connor Winfield was a gifted student, so no one could understand why he found school so difficult.
00:07 I would bet that most of my teachers didn't understand what autism was.
00:14 He struggled with exams, deadlines, anxiety and most of all, bullying.
00:19 By the end of year 10 at my mainstream Catholic high school, I was attending probably two classes on one day a week.
00:32 He's one of more than 223,000 NDIS participants who list autism as their primary disability. 69% are aged between 7 and 18.
00:42 Certainly teachers do not feel prepared to teach autistic students in education classrooms.
00:50 Current education standards require teachers to meet students' diverse needs, but what they're taught at university isn't specific to autism.
00:58 It's only one semester and it's very general and I do not feel it is meeting the needs.
01:03 On top of that, most mainstream schools aren't resourced to provide the flexibility that neurodiverse students often require.
01:11 There's a lot of money spent, for example, on teacher aids and teacher aids are not necessarily the best way to support students.
01:19 There's a lot of other things that can be done, but there's a lack of knowledge.
01:23 Addressing the autism knowledge gap is the subject of debate after the Disability Role Commission,
01:28 with commissioners divided on the future of segregated education, some calling for it to end by 2051.
01:34 Well, that's all well and good to suggest that, but we also have a mainstream school setting that's not set up to accommodate them.
01:40 Advocates fear it will get worse without an overhaul.
01:43 We're seeing research showing us the rise in homeschooling and school refusal.
01:48 You can't lay blame here on teachers, they simply don't have the training or resources.
01:52 Autism overlaps with health, disability and education, which has led advocates to fear that the issue will be handballed between departments and left unresolved.
02:02 Education Minister Jason Clare says an expert panel is underway to help students most at risk of falling behind, including students with a disability.
02:10 There's going to be some big real-time ramifications for this in the state education department,
02:14 so I think we've got a terrible situation at the moment, but I think it's about to get a lot worse.
02:19 Teaching degrees should just automatically include courses on how neurodiverse students can be supported.
02:27 An obvious solution for some, more complex for others.
02:30 Ashley Keating, ABC News, Canberra.
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